Short Summer Reading List and Some Recommendations

It takes a while for summer to feel like summer in Southern California...And this year the "June Gloom" has lasted well into July, shocking many of the tourists shivering on our beaches. But summer reading lists are always hot, so here goes:
My Short-List of Summer Reading:
Tinkers by Paul Harding
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
I'm only a couple of chapters into "Tinkers", but the book is beautifully written from page one (guess that's why it won the Pulitzer Prize, huh?). The other two I'm looking forward to on the strength of "popular" acclaim.
Odd to have 3 books on my reading list and not one woman author, but this summer started for me with "The Lacuna" which I'm still touting (along with C.M. Mayo's wonderful "Last Prince of the Mexican Empire.") And of course you know I've been re-reading some Austen this summer, one of my favorite authors.
As usual I'm reading some other classics as well, and I just finished The Old Curiosity Shop, by Charles Dickens, which I had never read. It was not his best story, by far, but it's full of strange, wounded, quirky characters who combine to make the whole book memorable. Some of his best "bad guys" are in his "worst" books.
There are some good new books out for young adults, too, and my friend John O'Melveny Woods' "Return to Treasure Island" is one of them. Obviously, it's a sequel to Stevenson's "Treasure Island" and a great deal of fun. The Foreword was written by LeVar Burton, who approached the book with caution, as did I, but was won over completely (well, duh, he wrote the Foreword, right?). Perfect for parents and kids to read together, this swashbuckling adventure story could lead to teenage boys actually wanting to read for fun...The author offers a free download of the original "Treasure Island" and a short prequel called the "Spanish Galleon" on his website, along with videos and puzzles, so there's family fun in the offing!
Another fine book out this summer for a mature Young Adult audience is Gary Winters' The Deer Dancer . I talked about this title before...But there are so few literary books written for this key audience, and even fewer are written about a Latino or Indian protagonist. The book recently won Best Book of the Year in a national contest and the honor is well-deserved.
I'm reading some good manuscripts this summer, too, and I'll expound on them at a later date...It's probably best for me to know when books will actually be coming out before going on and on about them.
hasta pronto!

Arts writing, and the writers life

Friday night's "community forum" at Warwick's Books in La Jolla was a surprising and revealing evening.
Surprising because:
1.) About 300 people cared enough to come spend about 3 hours (seats were mostly all gone by 7pm and we didn't break up till 9:30, with everyone standing around inside until much later) talking about the arts and about arts coverage and the future of newspaper writing...
2.) Most people seemed more concerned about Bob Pincus' job than about the future of Arts writing in general...
3.) No one threw anything or even cursed...
Revealing because:
1.) The new editor of THE daily paper here (the San Diego Union-Tribune), Jeff Light, was willing to say he'd consider working with a "coalition of partners" to try to find a new and creative way to keep Arts critic Robert Pincus writing about our local arts scene--though not in his paper.
2.) No one mentioned Books Editor Art Salm (except in passing) though his being "let go" a couple years ago was the beginning of the end for local book coverage...By which I don't mean coverage of local books--which never happened much and happens less now--but local events about, and reviews of, "national" books.
3.) No one much supported KPBS arts producer/reporter/blogger Angela Carone's suggestion that we look forward--to new concepts of, and new paradigms in arts coverage--instead of backward to the way things used to be. (Nor did anyone clap when I suggested that lack-luster, unengaged arts "consumers" share some blame for losing arts coverage.)
For those who like Facebook, Warwick's was posting some snippets of the discussion on their FB fan page.
Anyway, it was a very good event, on balance, and I'm very glad I went. If nothing else, it's nice to hear raised (but civil) voices, speaking passionately about big ideas in a bookstore, these days. Warwick's is a good venue, too, as well as one of the last of the indie stores here in SD County.
My take is that we need to make the discussion about books and writing and all the arts, as passionate as the discussion about what NBA team LeBron James was going to play for next...Or the discussion about local politics!
Let's do it...I'm trying to do my part in a small way here. Maybe you are doing yours by spreading the word about what you are digging reading/seeing/hearing; that is an important part of the new culture; check out Seth Godin on the importance of the "new sorting."
Also very cool and inspiring this week--a new podcast with my friend C.M. Mayo, on "The Writing Life"...Listen to it here.
Hasta pronto!

The Fourth of July, Patriotism, Borders and Books

Another holiday that bugs me? Not really...Though I'm not much of a flag-waver. I always think of a comic riff done by Eddie Izzard (the funniest and smartest comedian on the planet, find him on DVD) on colonization, where the British Empire takes over a country, claiming it simply because the current occupants had no flag. "Where's your flag? We have a flag."
Reading about the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase this morning over coffee...We started taking out some maps of the Southwest U.S. and comparing Mexico's current and former borders with the U.S. It certainly gives support to the current claim of many Mexicans living in what is now the U.S.: "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us!" I'm fascinated by the history of the dynamic few years of shifting borders, as far back as the Louisiana Purchase (1803), but especially from the 1846 war between the U.S. and Mexico through the Gadsden Purchase (1854).
Boring, you may say, but think what an impact these few years had upon this entire continent. Not to mention the long-term effect on world affairs. And perusing those old borders certainly throws an interesting light on the current "fight" (if one can call such desultory efforts a battle) for and against immigration reform.
So, yes, the 4th of July: our founding fathers voted to become independent of Britain back in 1776 (not really on the 4th, but that's neither here nor there, for those who care here's the wiki page) but since that "freedom" didn't extend to slaves or women, there wasn't much freedom to go around. Now, of course, we go around the globe, importing our special brand of "freedom and democracy" to all and sundry--whether they like it or not. All while waving the "Grand old Flag" of these United States. And on July 4th, we all say hooray...Mostly.
For those who are intrigued by the current efforts of San Diego's Arts and literature community to Reinstate Robert Pincus at the San Diego Union, visit the Campaign to Reintstate Bob Pincus blog, with links to the Facebook page, articles, The Warwick's bookstore event, and more.

Union-Tribune Arts and Books Demise, and Some Reasons for Hope

It's been a week since we heard that the San Diego Union-Tribune was firing its Arts and Books editor, Robert Pincus. Maybe "letting go" is what they call it. The new editor, Jeff Light, had a lot to say about the whole story, and here is his letter about the layoffs.
See how the Huffington Post weighed in on the story here.
I'm actually as concerned about the layoffs of Border beats as I am about the Arts cuts, though I will certainly miss Bob Pincus in all his many capacities. How is zero border coverage here in San Diego a good plan for the future?
Meanwhile, some of us here are still trying to help San Diego become a world-class literary and writing center--even a partial list is long: San Diego Writers, Ink; San Diego City Works Press; Read Local San Diego; the Southern California Writers Conference and the La Jolla Writers Conference; the San Diego Writers and Editors Guild; the Publishers and Writers of San Diego; the San Diego Book Awards Association; City College and Grossmont College (and SDSU, UCSD, & USD); dozens of hard-working, passionate independent bookstore owners and managers, and, of course, Sunbelt Publications and some other small presses.
The latest entry onto the local literary stage is Thorn Sully's A Word With You Press, which has a website worth visiting--there's lots of cool stuff to read and some fun contests for writers, too.
I guess I just wanted to say that there is a tremendous amount of wonderful work being done here by San Diego's literary community, not to mention great potential and promise...In spite of appearances to the contrary.
Hasta pronto!

Book Awards and Desert Travels

The month of June began with a fun evening at the San Diego Book Awards. Six of my "book babies" won top prizes, and many others took honors--our small press had fourteen finalists, between our published and distributed books.

I'm very pleased that Chasing a Dream in the Galapagos won first prize in the Travel category, because it isn't the usual thing for that genre. The author weaves together the story of her journey with a larger tale of the natural history of, and current conservation work in, the islands, plus a great deal of Darwin history and evolution lore, and enough of her personal family story to make you care.

Another winner was our popular history of the Cuyamacas written by Leland Fetzer, San Diego's busiest archivist, and author of four books on the region's history, place names, and even local gold mines.

And last but not least, the adorable Santa Claus and the Molokai Mules won for best children's picture book. I'll remind the world about this book come November--it's the perfect gift for any kid, surfer or wanna-be...Two cookbooks and an anthology we distribute also won awards: Flying Pans, Cicciotti's Kitchen, and Lavanderia an electic anthology of poetry, prose and art. For more on the San Diego book awards click here to go to their site and see the full list of books that took honors.
After basking in the limelight of the awards, and the validation of my peers, I took off some time and went on vacation!
Vacationing is odd when you live in one of America's vacation spots. We don't go looking for palm trees, gorgeous beaches, or sunsets over the waterfront, since we pretty much get that on a daily basis living on a boat in So Cal. We're drawn more to deserts, and there are some great desert locales near enough to drive over for lunch (or dinner). Luckily, this time we took a week, and drove to Palm Springs, where I had some "work" to do...Visiting a few resorts and bookstores in the area, touting Sunbelt's popular desert titles, like Palm Springs Legends by Greg Niemann. Russel and I visited Greg to pick up his manuscript for the upcoming Las Vegas Legends.
Anyway, there were umbrella drinks, and lazy pool-side days spent reading magazines and chatting with friends, and a big party with the usual fabulous fare. Our P.S. buddies really know how to live, and we love to visit--but not TOO often...Then we drove north to the Mojave Desert and through some starkly beautiful scenery, playing rock and roll and marveling at the amazing stands of Joshua Trees, enroute to visiting old friends with a new home in the Antelope Valley.
We are working on a new screenplay, set in the high desert, so this was the perfect setting for brain-storming about new plot lines. One day we took a hike by the California Aquaduct and talked about Chinatown (the link is to a book which contains Towne's original screenplay--arguably one of the best screenplays ever written) and the Owens Valley water debacle of years gone by.
Back home to work and more writing--we threw out much of the screenplay and are reworking it much leaner, and cleaner. Ahh, editing...
hasta pronto!